Storage Question

I recently purchased a new macbook pro 13 retina 128GB SSD. It's my first mac and when I check how much storage is taken up in my personal folder (music/movies/doc/etc.) it's telling me that 25GB is in the folder. However, when I check each folder inside, they all say at most 2GB. Which makes the total WAY less than 25. Is there a hidden folder system that I'm missing?

Basically the space was free until I tried to add my iTunes library and forgot to make it not copy onto the HD from the external. I deleted all the files in the music folder, but the 25GB stuck around in what I'm guessing now is a hidden folder.

Basically the space was free until I tried to add my iTunes library and forgot to make it not copy onto the HD from the external. I deleted all the files in the music folder, but the 25GB stuck around in what I'm guessing now is a hidden folder.

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It's just that spotlight has not reindexed those folders yet.

It's a known bug since Mavericks, and it hasn't been fixed yet. If you truly want to know how much space you have left check disk utility or right click on your hard drive and get info.

Staff Member

I recently purchased a new macbook pro 13 retina 128GB SSD. It's my first mac and when I check how much storage is taken up in my personal folder (music/movies/doc/etc.) it's telling me that 25GB is in the folder. However, when I check each folder inside, they all say at most 2GB. Which makes the total WAY less than 25. Is there a hidden folder system that I'm missing?

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You are not looking at that Storage graphic in About this Mac are you? Like snaky69 said, that thing is all jacked up.

If you are just looking in Finder, there is a hidden user Library like CoastalOR mentioned, but that would usually only be 5-7GB or so.

Run the command below in Terminal and it will show the size of all your user folders GB, hidden or not. It takes a minute for the command to complete.

You are not looking at that Storage graphic in About this Mac are you? Like snaky69 said, that thing is all jacked up.

If you are just looking in Finder, there is a hidden user Library like CoastalOR mentioned, but that would usually only be 5-7GB or so.

Run the command below in Terminal and it will show the size of all your user folders GB, hidden or not. It takes a minute for the command to complete.

Code:

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/

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I was getting the number by right clicking on the folder and choosing and selecting Get Info. I ran the command in terminal which gave me roughly the same number. I'm just at a loss of where these GB are and how to get rid of them.

Staff Member

I was getting the number by right clicking on the folder and choosing and selecting Get Info. I ran the command in terminal which gave me roughly the same number. I'm just at a loss of where these GB are and how to get rid of them.

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Tell me exactly where you are getting this total from that does not match up? Because that Terminal command should match up with the total for your personal users folder.

Basically the space was free until I tried to add my iTunes library and forgot to make it not copy onto the HD from the external. I deleted all the files in the music folder, but the 25GB stuck around in what I'm guessing now is a hidden folder.

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To see library while you have the finder go menu open press alt key and you will see library show up. Open it and there you go.

Library is where your apps will stores its data. If playing with plists and such...here is where its done as well. Example: I stopped playing a game. Uninstalled the app from applications. Few GB there, knew it had a lot more on the system. Bulk of its data was in library though. Waxed that folder since not need anymore and got the space back I expected.

Note: Be careful in library. Can do some great things here. Or some bad things.

Dig up CLI tools use for files. The gui based ones may not always be correct for reasons. CLI can be more correct than GUI at times.. basic command like df-h is th start of fun cli disk use tools.

Also in the case of file use after you deleted....turn off time machine for a little while. What can happen is it will remember those files and have the system think they are still there. Turn off time machine for a bit, you should see the system forget about those files and then are truly out of system and you get your drive space back. Not sure exactly of the technical reasons for the remembering, time machine off works like a champ so far though to resolve.

Staff Member

Also in the case of file use after you deleted....turn off time machine for a little while. What can happen is it will remember those files and have the system think they are still there. Turn off time machine for a bit, you should see the system forget about those files and then are truly out of system and you get your drive space back. Not sure exactly of the technical reasons for the remembering, time machine off works like a champ so far though to resolve.

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That would be Time Machine's local snapshots, but they are not stored in the users folder so would not explain OP's issue. The local snapshots are stored in a hidden /.Mobilebackups folder.

Staff Member

So those are essential files or are they temp files that came over when I made the accidental copies? Is there a Mac version of CCleaner that would clean them up?

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A little of both. There are a bunch of settings files in there and also a bunch of cache (temp) files in there. Do not mess with any of those cleaner apps as many of them delete things that need to be there and cause problems. Yours at 8GB is about average and I would not mess with it.

If you want you can look in this folder and see if there is a cache for any apps you know you no longer own and you can delete that cache folder to save a bit of space, but I don't think you will find much with only 8GB total there.

Just triple click the line below to select then right click and in the services menu select reveal in Finder and you will be in the correct folder.

Basically the space was free until I tried to add my iTunes library and forgot to make it not copy onto the HD from the external. I deleted all the files in the music folder, but the 25GB stuck around in what I'm guessing now is a hidden folder.

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